"Now it's finally time to talk about what can really change music."
Florian Mrugalla
The Art of Building Scales
There is a continuum of frequencies. Which of them should we play?
A scale is a set of frequency intervals a musician might want to play, together with a naming convention for each note. The Western 12-tone scale is just one of infinitely many possibilities. PitchGrid makes many of them accessible for exploration and music-making.
Every scale has its own characteristic interval relationships, which influence the sound and feel of the music possible within it. This is tuning theory. PitchGrid is a tuning theory plugin.
"I've wanted to bring microtonality into collective improvisations for years. The first time I used PitchGrid with a collaborator, it was so much fun! It has added a new dimension to our music"
Simon O'Rorke, free improv keyboardist
Justness vs Regularity
Two important aspects of musical intervals are fundamentally incompatible:
Justness — Consonance is achieved at particular frequency ratios. For tones with harmonic spectra, this means ratios of small integers. The smaller the integers, the stronger the consonance. This is because lower overtones resonate together, creating that sense of two notes fitting or hugging.
Regularity — Tonal music relies on repetition, and one key device is transposition: shifting a phrase up or down in pitch. Scales that enable transposition naturally become regular in structure.
No scale can be both perfectly just and maximally regular. Every scale built for tonal music is a compromise between the two.
The PitchGrid Approach
Traditional tuning theory starts with just intervals, then tempers them to achieve regularity. PitchGrid turns this around: start with a regular scale and see which just intervals it can approximate.
The advantage is that regular scales can be easily parametrised. PitchGrid's knobs alter all pitches simultaneously while maintaining regularity. No tuning theory knowledge required — just tweak and listen.
PitchGrid focuses on rank-2 regular temperaments: scales with two different step sizes. These offer much better approximations of just intervals than equal divisions of the octave, while preserving the structural regularity that makes transposition work. The Western diatonic scale, with its five large and two small steps, is the prototype — but it's just one possibility among many.
The tuning theorist Erv Wilson explored all scales with two equally-distributed step sizes, calling them Moments of Symmetry (MOS). MOS scales are what PitchGrid is about. PitchGrid is dedicated to the memory of Erv Wilson.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is your refund policy?
We offer a 30-day refund policy for all software purchases. No questions asked.
Do you offer educational discounts?
Yes. We offer a 50% educational discount. Please send us a message with proof of your student status.